Dick Dawson has been involved with railroad freight cars since 1967, when joined the New York Central's equipment engineering department.  He remained with the Penn Central until 1973, during which time he designed a number of freight cars built by the railroad in its own shops.  He then left for Trailer Train where he developed the requirements for the Railbox fleet of boxcars.  He left Trailer Train in 1977 to head up the freight car engineering department at Berwick Forge & Fabricating.  When BFF went out of business in 1984 he returned to Trailer train where he remained until he retired in 2003.  While at Trailer train, now TTX Company, he was responsible for new car engineering during a time when many new car types were introduced to TTX's fleet.  He continues to work on a consulting basis in the freight car industry and is chairman of an AAR task force on freight car safety appliances.